Little Us: Ready To Rock Another Day and Beyond
Photo Credit: Connor Angers
Little Us: Ready To Rock Another Day and Beyond
Little Us is a rocking band from Connecticut ready to explode all over the worldwide music scene. Recently signed to Famined Records, Little Us has released two solid singles entitled Another Day and Real To Me, capturing the attention of all who give a good listen. They’ve opened for the likes of Issues, Slaves, and The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, and are ready to entertain once more after months of being off stages due to the Covid pandemic. Highwire Daze recently caught up Rithya Claude, the charismatic front man of Little Us, to find out a whole lot more about this amazing band to on the rise. Read on…
Introduce yourself. Tell me what you do in Little Us. Tell me how long the band has been together?
I’m Rith. I’m the lead singer and I play guitar as well. So this band has been going on for a decent amount of time actually. It actually started back in high school, but we reformed, switched out members, but the name stuck around. We did completely different music. It was more of a classic rock original music but it was more light rock. But then, everyone went off to college. So we went on a short hiatus and we came back afterwards and we kept 3 of our members. And we dabbled around with a few more members and eventually became more heavier. And we started over and started actually making that push and marketing ourselves correctly. And actually, we got serious about it and it evolved. And we started writing our own music, recording it ourselves, and eventually went over to a producer, friend of ours Sean, and he pushed just a little further. And then, we took what he had to say and made it our own and then kept pushing forward. And that’s where we are now. And now, we just got signed to Famined Records and just progressed from there honestly.
Where you guys based out often? What is your local music scene like there? Probably not much because of pandemic, but what is it like?
Our home state is Connecticut but it’s confusing because we got a member living in Colorado and he comes to Connecticut all the time. And I have another member in Pennsylvania who goes to school there. But we usually all center around Connecticut because our drummer and me are here. But our music scene is actually pretty strong here. We have a venue called The Webster and it’s on the central area of Connecticut. And we also play at this venue called Toad’s Place, which is pretty legendary. The music scene here us very strong honestly. Everyone loves to support each other. Everyone’s so welcoming.
Rithya Claude of Little Us
You have a new single out called Another Day. Is there any overall story or concept behind that song?
Yeah, actually. The main focus with that song is, to simply put it, a toxic relationship. And when we sat down to write the lyrics for this, we all went through the same kind of things with this at one point or another with a toxic relationship. And actually, 2 of us at the time, were going through it. But we sat down and we we’re like, the instrumentals that we had down at the time felt right with the topic of a toxic relationship and being worn down by a significant other and just feeling, you really need to get out of the situation. That’s what the song is about, having enough strength for yourself to realize, “Hey, this is not right for me. Maybe the other person can find someone better for them and I could do the same for myself” sort of thing. “Life’s not where I want it right now so I don’t know if this is right for me.” And having that strength to actually make that decision for yourself and just move on, and wish the other person the best, and just get out of the situation, and that’s what that song is about. I mean, it reflects in some of the lines like, “you can burn this down in flames because I know you’ll never change” sort of thing in the song. And it reflects , “hey, I’ve had enough, I know you’re not going to change your ways. I know that nothing is going to really come from this. So it’s better off that we just go our separate ways essentially.”
What was the inspiration behind your brand new single Real To Me?
So the Inspiration behind “Real To Me” came from something a lot of people feel during rough patches. It’s that internal thought screaming “listen, I know we’re fighting but let’s take a step back and solve this together because It’s not worth losing anything over.” It revolves around the cliche notion that communication and teamwork is key in healthy relationships.
How close are you guys to releasing a new EP or an album even?
Honestly, I’m hesitant on what I can say and can’t say but we’re pretty confidently that it’s just around the corner. And what’s funny is, we got some other stuff in the works too, which is cool. We just announced a few days ago that we’re dropping a behind-the-scenes video of the music video shoot for Another Day, which is cool. It gives you a different perspective of how we shot it, shows us fooling around on the set, and another side of things that a lot of people don’t actually get to see, which is cool. And then, we also have some other things coming out with homages to our last EP that we wrote, which is cool. Something we’ve never really done before but that’s definitely going to come around. And then, just right around the corner, some more material, some more music, and I’m definitely excited to share that. We’re really hyped to see what the reaction is. Because it’s definitely some stuff we’ve never done before – but yeah, that’s all I could say about it. It’s not too far down the road definitely.
Photo Credit: Shay Stephens
What has it been like, writing and recording music in the middle of a pandemic and all this social unrest in the world?
Oh, that’s a crazy question. So actually I, so I mentioned before that we had a member living in Colorado permanently and another member in Pennsylvania. So what’s actually funny is, when this whole COVID thing happened, we were already used to going online and writing online and connecting that way. Because, originally, when we first started this version of band a few years back, we were all living in Connecticut so it was easier obviously at the time both. Since we split up, we went over emails and Skype and Face-time and stuff like that. And whenever we have to play shows and stuff like Ethan would fly over in Connecticut and Alex will already be back. So we’ll get together for those main things. But since COVID hit, we had already adapted into the whole online world sort of thing. So we were writing parts. We were prepping emails for people already online. But then when COVID hit, we were in tracking mode for the songs, they all flew in and we tracked our thing, and shot the music video early on. I think it was a matter of a week that we tracked and everything.
We had a rough cut of the song and we ended up finishing the final version of the song way after the video was shot, which is funny. But we adapted pretty easily. Actually because we were already in that mode, I think we’re more prepared for it than a lot of bands that are together. But at the same time, we took it and ran with it, because we really like gravitating towards the online world and connecting with people that way. We even did live streams, and we did live stream game nights where we interacted with fans and played. So we got with it pretty smoothly honestly.
You’ve opened for some pretty impressive bands in the past. I’d want to talk about a few of them. First of all, what was it like opening for Issues? And did you get to meet or hang out with them at all?
Oh man! When we actually got that show. It was a shot in the dark thing. We’re friends with the booker at Toad’s Place, which is that venue I was talking about earlier. But we played at that venue a few times, then we saw the lineup that they were bringing to Connecticut with Issues and Polyphia and all those bands, and we’re like, “whoa!.” I wonder if we just took a shot in the dark, reached out to her, and saw if she’d have us on because we didn’t see any locals for that. So we emailed her way before. It was 8 months before that and she ended up reaching out to us 4 months before the show. It’s like, “(We) talked to their their tour manager and they would love to have you on.” So we eventually played it and we were all overwhelmed, because Issues is a big band that we’ve listened to for the longest time. So when we got to the venue, we were expecting them to see them chilling and all that, but they were just running around. Their stage crew was setting up, so we didn’t really have time to talk to them much. And we were just setting up our own things, so we didn’t want to really disturb them.
But we ended up having a great show. A lot of people came out and we really enjoyed watching them at the end after we played. So it was just a crazy time. We were able to say hi to them and all that, but we weren’t able to hang out as much as we want. But that’s totally really fine because they have to do what they had to do. Before the show, they had a meet and greet for all the people that signed up for it. So we didn’t want to disturb any of that. But it was really cool watching them do what they do. Especially, because we’ve been following them for years. It’s like a whole different experience for us to actually see that in person and see how these guys have evolved and take influence from them and see how they act and stuff like that. It was just a really cool thing to see honestly.
Photo Credit: Rickelle Tavares
You opened up for Slaves and you opened up a Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, what were those 2 shows like and were there any stories about meeting them?
It’s tough because, as far as The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, they were on their bus for most of the time before they even actually got on stage. But I think a big part of that is because The Red Jumpsuit is such a legendary pop punk, rock band from the 2000’s. I feel like they can’t just hang around like we do sort of thing because everyone will just be talking to them the whole time. So we actually got to hang out with them a little a little before the show when no one was into the venue. And that night for The Red Jumpsuit, the venue was just packed These guys killed it live on stage as they always do. And it was just another one of those star struck moments where we’re just like, wow! We’ve been listening for to these guys for years and now we’ve somehow got the opportunity to open for them. I don’t know how we even managed to pull that off but it was just a fantastic time.
And the same thing with Slaves. All these high caliber bands, they’re so personable. They know how to make that connection with the fans and it really inspires us to do the same especially when performing live – seeing Slaves, their new lead singer interact with the crowd and same thing with The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. They just know how to make that impression, and connect with the people and be personable and all that. So that’s the big takeaway I got from them. That’s one of the bigger things I remembered from playing those types of shows with those legendary bands that we’ve been following for the longest time.
If Little Us could open for any band either now or from the past, who would it be and why?
I feel every member in the band has a different opinion on this, but I know a lot of us would probably say this as at least the top 3. But for me personally, I would say Def Leppard. And the reason I say that is because they were one of the bands that actually got me into actually playing guitar when I was 6 or 7 years old. They were one of the huge influences especially their one-armed drummer. I mean, that was just something that just was so inspiring to me. So I’ve been following them ever since. They’ve been my favorite band of all time and I’ve seen them perform 8 times live and that’s just always been a dream of mine. If we ever get to step on stage with them, that would just be an ultimate, “Okay, we’ve made it” sort of thing. But hopefully, that’ll come in the years. But definitely, Def Leppard or maybe even Journey or something like that. One of those big guys – the Arena stadium rock bands.
If the music of Little Us were a donut, what kind would it be and why?
Did you say donut?
Yes, I did.
Oh, I love that. Okay. All right. This is the best question I’ve ever actually gotten. [laugh] Let’s see. That’s a hard one. Holy cow! Okay, I got it. Okay. I would say a Boston Cream. And the reason I say that is because, it looks different on the outside, it’s tasty, it’s chocolatey on the top. But when you bite in and get to the center of it and you really dig deep, you’ll see even more of a treat. I’d say Boston Cream, that nice tasty look on the outside and even better look on the inside.
So what do you hope the rest of 2021 and 2022 brings for you and your band?
I think I can speak for all of us. Famined Records is doing a fantastic job with distributing and promoting us and stuff like that. And they’re just really great at what they do. So we’re just looking forward to meeting new people and seeing the new connections with different people. And we’re already seeing new friends and fans being created from different parts of the world we wouldn’t even expect. There’s even some from Africa, Ireland, Australia, and a lot from Mexico. It’s crazy! But definitely, we’re looking forward to seeing what comes of that and what new people are able to find us, discover us, and start liking our music. And hopefully some time in the future, we could even play more shows and meet these people in the different states and stuff like that. So I think that’s what we’re looking forward to, especially because we haven’t played shows in a long, long time. And I know we’re all out of state, but hopefully, we can get together and see if we can make use of all the releases and play for these people who have just discovered our band and make that connection with them. So I think that’s what we’re looking forward to…
Little Us is:
Rithya Claude – Vocals/Guitar
Ethan Johnson – Keyboard/Vocals
Alex Pearson – Guitar/Vocals
Kallen Colbert – Drums
(Interview by Ken Morton)
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